Local area computer networks, often referred to as LANs provide a popular means of interconnecting multiple computers so that they can communicate with each other. A simple network could be used to interconnect the personal computers in a small business. It would include a small number of computers (sometimes referred to as nodes) coupled together by means of network hardware to allow the computers to share files and peripherals such as printers, modems, scanners and the like. A network of this size can be simply run as a so called peer to peer network where all computers on the network are equal at least in terms of their relationship to each other on the network.
More sophisticated local area network configurations can increase the number of computers that are connected to a network and also can require different networking software. Certain of the computer nodes on such a network have special status on the network. These so called server computers (or servers) run software for managing network communications. Often a server computer or server node will have special peripherals such as faster modems or direct Internet connections. They may also have larger, faster access memories and larger, faster hard drives than the so called client nodes on the network. One example of server software that runs a local area network's server computers is Microsoft Windows NT Server.
Server components running on a server computer offer a number of services that can change depending on how the network administrator configures the network. Server computers are typically configured in a way to meet the network administrators perceived notion of what the client nodes on the network require. In the prior art, when a server configuration changed, the client nodes had to be changed and this was accomplished by a user accessing a configuration screen on the client and making software configuration changes for each of the client nodes on the network. Not all changes to a server software configuration need client side reconfiguration. In a small business network where relatively inexperienced administrators manage the network, it is difficult for the user to tell what updates to the server software require client nodes to be reconfigured and which of those server updates need no client reconfiguration.
More sophisticated networks have multiple servers coupled to different sets of client nodes. In a typical small business network of less than 50 computers coupled to the network there is only one server that services the needs of all client nodes. The present invention concerns efficient updating of network components including a means of updating the client software in response to a change of the status of a server computer.